Happy New Year! I hope all of you had a wonderful transition into 2007. In honor of the new year and new start, I thought we could share any ideas we have for becoming better parents.

Before we get to that, though, I wanted to address a question I've been getting a lot lately. It seems that many of you have been going in to pediatrician checkups soon after your babies start crawling, and your doctors have been concerned that the steady weight gain has dropped off. I'm confused about this, because I thought it was common knowledge (at least among my friends and our pediatricians, and my mom, and lots of the older generation) that as soon as babies start moving around they stop gaining weight as fast (if at all) because all those calories go into movement.

I'm even more confused by the fact that your doctors are suggesting that you either stop nursing (???) or start forcing your babies to eat things like straight butter, Cheerios (which have fewer calories and less fat than breast milk or formula), or Cheetos with ranch dressing (yes, this is a real suggestion from someone's ped in an email I got). I am really rendered speechless by this kind of advice.

So when you leave your New Year's resolution, could you also leave your kids' data points (if they're over the crawling stage)? It would help other parents know what's normal.

Here's my info:

My New Year's resolution is to yell less by planning ahead more, especially with getting dressed, which seems to be our stuck spot. I'm also going to try to be in the moment more with my children, even when it's doing things I don't love.

The Fine PrintMy expertise is in helping people be who they want to be, with a specialty in how being a parent fits into everything else. I like people. I like parents. I think you're doing a fantastic job. The nitty-gritty of what you do with your kids is up to you, although I'm happy to post questions here to get data points of how you could try approaching different stages, because, let's face it, this shit is hard. As for me, I have two kids who sleep through the night and can tie their own shoes. I've been a married SAHM, a married freelance WAHM, a divorcing WOHM, a divorced WOHM, and now a WAHM again. I'm not buying the Mommy Wars and I'll come sit next to you no matter how you're feeding your kid. When in doubt, follow the money trail. And don't believe the hype.